Purpose

To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net

Friday, November 8, 2013

4 Hard Truths About Transit

Who says only disastrousnews emerges from Toronto these days? A regional advisory panel has released a series of sharp discussion papers meant to enlighten the public about transit in greater Toronto (via Human Transit). The first paper — called "Hard Truths about Transit" [PDF] — offers six key points to inform a "mature" debate on the topic. Now there's a word not heard around those parts in a while.

While two of the points are very local in scope, four represent
universal lessons that bear repeating to residents in many large cities
around the world. The whole paper is worth a read, but here's a peek at
those four in particular.

1. "Subways are not the only good form of transit."
There's a tendency to see subways as the optimal form of urban
transportation. For sure, an efficient subway system, with the power of
moving thousands of people quickly through crowded corridors, can make a
great city even greater. At the same time, heavy rail is extremely
expensive and only appropriate when levels of existing density demand
it.

The Ontario panel reminds metro area residents that an effective transit network depends less on one high-tech mode
and more on "matching the technology to the circumstances." For
considerably less money, commuter corridors can implement light rail
lines almost capable of matching subway ridership (and also capable of making residents happier). Perhaps even more cost-efficient is bus rapid-transit, which can rival light rail when done right and has proven equally (if not more) attractive in terms of economic development.

2. "Transit does not automatically drive development."
Hard truth number two picks up where hard truth number one left off.
It's become increasingly fashionable to suggest that transit alone can
boost the local economy by attracting businesses and retail development.
Again, to be sure, public transportation that increases access to a
dense area can produce so-called "agglomeration economies" — in other
words, they can be worth way more than their cost to a city.

But as the Ontario panel points out, "you cannot just build transit
anywhere and hope commercial development will follow." Land use
planning, local job growth potential, and other business plans must also
be part of the discussion. "Understanding the relationship between
transit planning, land use and employment region-wide will cast the
debate over transit priorities in a new and constructive light," the
report states.

3. The cost of transit is more than construction.
Canadian governments, like those in the United States, separate capital
costs of constructing public transportation from the operational costs
of running it. The Ontario panel argues that this practice can obscure
the total investment needed to pay for a new line or system throughout
its functional life. As this chart shows, capital costs are in many
cases just a fraction (though a sizeable one) of 50-year costs for a
mode:

4. Transit users aren't the only ones who benefit from transit.
This point is perhaps the panel's most important. The discussion about
public transportation often dissolves into an emotional debate about
whether or not all city residents should pay for a system used by only
some. It's an odd contention, really, since few people also argue that
paying for police, hospitals, schools are worthwhile — although not
everyone uses these public services, either.

The Ontario panel explains that transit can be the cornerstone of a
productive local economy that benefits everyone. Among other thing,
transit brings workers closer to jobs, reduces the costly (in many
senses of the word) need to own a car, and attracts retail and business
revenue that can be reinvested into the city. "These are indirect
benefits that will be felt by all of us," says the report.
Stay mature, Toronto.